Fruit quality characterization of eleven commercial mandarin cultivars in Spain

•Clementina Fina' and 'Clemenules' were most appropriate for fresh consumption.•These two cultivars are small-medium sized fruits and excellent quality juice.•'Tangor' had large number of seeds and excessive size, ideal for extraction of juice.•'Ellendale' showed high volume juice, antioxidant activity, ascorbic acid, and K.•Only 'Nova' of the hybrids presented good properties, with high antioxidant activity.

In this study, we characterized the chemical and physical aspects of eleven commercial mandarins ['Clementine' ('Clementina Fina', 'Clemenules', 'Hernandina'), tangor ('Ortanique', 'Afourer', 'Ellendale'), and hybrid cultivars ('Fortuna', 'Kara', 'Mor', 'Nova' and 'Yosemite')] in the Spanish southeast. The analysis revealed that 'Ellendale' showed the highest amount of juice, 'Nova' and 'Clementina Fina' displayed high total soluble solids and low titratable acidity, and 'Clementina Fina' showed a particularly high concentration of Potassium. The cultivars 'Clementina Fina' and 'Clemenules' were the mandarins most appropriate for fresh consumption, with small-medium sized fruits and a high percentage of excellent quality juice.